Jonah Hill Jumps Into Controversy Just as His Career Gets Serious

For someone who has achieved a high degree of fame in his 20s, Jonah Hill managed to stay out of the tabloids and gossip columns—until now. This past weekend he unleashed a homophobic slur at a paparazzo while he was walking with a friend in the Larchmont Village area of Los Angeles.

Losing his cool, the 30-year-old star lashed out at a photographer who was teasing him about his flowered shorts. “Suck my d—k, you f—-t,” Hill told the man who had been trailing him all day.

Ironically, in this week’s Varietycover story, Hill was asked how he’s been able to avoid attracting negative press all these years, something he attributed to his good upbringing and working nonstop.

“Since ‘Superbad,’ I haven’t taken a break. I go make movies, so I don’t’ have the time to be a mess,” he says, “At least not yet. Maybe my 30s will be the era where I become a mess.”

Hill appeared on the Howard Stern show Tuesday morning, apologizing for what he said and expressing remorse. “I said a disgusting word that does not at all reflect how I feel about any group of people,” Hill told Stern. “I think I am pretty good at making movies, but I am not good at being a famous person.” He later visited “The Tonight Show” pay further penance, telling host Jimmy Fallon, “My heart’s broken and I am genuinely and deeply sorry to anyone who has ever been affected by that term in their life.”

The controversy comes at an inauspicious moment in Hill’s career. He wants nothing more than to be taken seriously in Hollywood as he expands his role as an actor, writer and producer. He’s gone from headlining broad laffers like “Superbad” to essaying dramatic turns for directors Martin Scorsese and Bennett Miller. Not only did he steal scenes in “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Moneyball” from stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, respectively, he garnered supporting actor Oscar nominations for both performances.

And, he’s not done adding hyphens. Having set his sights on directing, Hill is quietly pitching a project he hopes to shoot next year based on a true-life story, details of which he insists on holding close to the vest.

“I think Jonah is going to have one of the great careers, because he can do anything,” says Judd Apatow, who directed the actor in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up” and “Funny People,” and produced his first hit as a leading man in “Superbad.”

Apatow describes Hill as a hilarious, thoughtful, complicated person who also manages to be humble about his accomplishments. “He has worked so hard, but he is also the first person to call and say, ‘Can you believe this is happening? It’s crazy.’ ”

One of Hill’s proudest achievements is that he’s hosted “Saturday Night Live” three times, and has created a recurring character — a precocious 6-year-old named Adam Grossman, who loves Benihana. He’s also had a hand in writing some of the most shared recent “SNL” skits, including a parody of Spike Jonze’s “Her,” in which he falls in love with his own voice.

“I can’t even wrap my mind around the idea that I have a recurring character on ‘SNL,’ ” he remarks. “What a weird childhood dream.” In 2011, he created animated show “Allen Gregory,” for which he wrote the pilot and voiced the lead character — a pretentious 7-year-old. Despite its rejection by fans and critics, Hill savored the opportunity for collaboration, and enjoyed staffing a writers’ room in which he could bounce ideas off others. “I never want to be on my own creating something,” he says.

And Hill has proven to be as inventive a business impresario as he is an actor and writer.

His biggest feat to date as a producer has been shepherding the movie adaptation of ’80s TV show “21 Jump Street” and its sequel, “22 Jump Street,” which hits theaters June 13 with something the first film lacked — high expectations.

The first reimagining of the Johnny Depp-toplined series, in 2012, became a surprise hit, starring Hill and Channing Tatum as undercover cops in a high school. With the first film garnering rave reviews and more than $200 million in worldwide box office, a follow-up was inevitable. But everyone involved knows the risks in revisiting a hit. There’s a meta scene in the new film where Nick Offerman’s character, Deputy Chief Hardy notes, “Nobody gave a shit about the ‘Jump Street’ reboot, but you got lucky.” He goes on to warn that second assignments are always more expensive, and never as good as the original.

Hill, who also receives a “story by” credit on both films, believes the sequel, set at a university, still has a lot of potential.

“We always thought college was funnier and a more ripe arena than high school, because all the rules are off,” Hill says.

When his agent, WME’s Sharon Jackson, first suggested to him the idea of bringing “21 Jump Street” to the silver screen, Hill admits, “I thought it was a terrible idea.” But the more he turned it over in his mind the more he warmed to the notion. “I realized that if I could make ‘Bad Boys’ mixed with the heart and humor of a John Hughes movie, it would be really interesting.”

Unlike many in Hollywood, Hill is not an actor who takes a producer credit in name only. “If I sign on, it’s because I really care and want to see it through,” he says.

His first step in putting “Jump Street” together was recruiting his pal Michael Bacall to write the screenplay. Together, they spent two months hashing out a thorough outline. Hill also was instrumental in hiring directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who had made the animated comedy “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” but had never helmed a live-action movie. The challenge proved irresistible. “Our goal was how punk rock would it be to make a good movie out of such a terrible idea,” Lord explains.

Hill also is proud to take credit for hiring his co-star, Tatum. Though he had seen the actor only in indie coming-of-age drama “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints,” Hill was convinced Tatum was perfect to play his onscreen partner. Nobody else saw it, including Tatum.

“He kept telling me, ‘I’m not funny, I can’t be funny,’ ” Hill recalls. “And I said, ‘You’re earnest and you believe you’re that person. So if you just commit, it’s going to be wonderful.’ And it was.”

Tatum doesn’t recall much protesting. “Jonah called me up and said he had this movie, ‘21 Jump Street,’ written. I was like, ‘The one from the TV show?’ And he said yep, and he told me what a terrible idea it was. And I said I was in. Immediately.”

For Hill, the key to comedy lies in the characters being real. “It has to come from truth,” he notes. “Whether it’s a comedy or drama, any success I’ve had comes from being honest with the character. I don’t care if a movie is bad — I can’t help that as an actor. But my job is to make the person I’m playing believable and real, and experiencing these feelings.”

For Sony Pictures, the studio behind the “Jump Street” franchise, Hill proved an invaluable resource on set. “Jonah has this elegant and quiet way of helping without taking over,” says Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal. “He is a perfectionist and a barometer of what is funny like no one I’ve ever seen before.”

Filmmakers cite Hill’s skill at improvisation for having created some of the most memorable scenes in the movies he’s made. Lord points to a sequence in “22 Jump Street” that pays homage to “Annie Hall,” where Hill and Tatum’s characters bond while cooking lobsters. “That was a case of Jonah insisting we do it, and we weren’t sure,” the director says. “We fought him hard on it. And now it’s one of our favorite parts of the movie.”

When Lord and Miller were directing this year’s hit “The Lego Movie,” they had Hill and Tatum come in to record voice cameos as Green Lantern and Superman, respectively. “We gave them the premise and some lines, but it ended up being those guys riffing for two hours,” Chris Miller says. “Jonah is one of the most gifted improvisers I’ve ever seen.”

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Jonah Hill Feldstein never set out to become an actor.

A Los Angeles native, he is the second son of Sharon and Richard Feldstein; his older brother Jordan Feldstein is a manager whose clients include Maroon 5 and Robin Thicke.

While attending the New School, a progressive university in New York, Hill was focused on writing and directing short plays. But he had a big problem. “I didn’t know how to speak to actors, and a lot of the actors would complain that my directions were very insulting,” he admits. “So I figured I would take an acting class to learn how I would want to be spoken to as an actor. I not only loved it, but I got the most positive feedback I’d ever received in my life for anything I’d ever done.”

Growing up, Hill attended Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica, Calif., where he became good friends with Jake Hoffman, son of the Oscar-winning actor. Dustin Hoffman would set his friends up by having Hill crank-call them, often pretending to be an assistant to a celebrity, and make outlandish requests.

When Hoffman was set to star in “I Heart Huckabees,” he recommended Hill to director David O. Russell. Though the tyro thesp had never auditioned before, he booked the role of Jean Smart and Richard Jenkins’ son. “I was so green and nervous, and it was just one scene,” Hill recalls. “But it was a thrill and an honor, and I knew I was in love.”

His next role was also small, but it paid off big. For “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” Apatow was looking for someone to play a kid who wanders into Catherine Keener’s eBay store, and simply can’t wrap his mind around the way it works. “It was a one-line part,” Apatow recalls. “On the day we shot, it was raining, so we had a lot of time inside the store to mess around. Purely for my own amusement, I said, ‘Let’s force Jonah to improvise with Catherine for a really long time.’ It was basically throwing a young man in with an awesome acting shark to see what would happen. Cruel, really.

“And then, for the next hour, Jonah crushed it,” Apatow says. “He was so strong and unique. We all fell in love with him.”

When Apatow wrote the script for “Knocked Up,” he had Hill in mind to play one of Seth Rogen’s best friends, and he credits the actor with creating some of his favorite moments. “Shooting Jay Baruchel and Jonah’s idiotic abortion debate was the highlight for me,” Apatow says. “I especially enjoyed when Jonah mockingly shows concern for Jay’s sensitivity to the issue by only using the word ‘shmooshmortion.’ ”

But Apatow knew there was heart to Hill’s comedy, and cast him in “Superbad” as an obnoxious teen nursing a crush on fellow student Emma Stone. “We needed the audience to believe she could fall in love with this ridiculous mess of a kid,” Apatow notes.

While his comedies were making big money at the box office, it was a small independent film, “Cyrus,” in 2010, which launched Hill’s dramatic career. The picture was directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, known for their Mumblecore style of largely ad-libbed scenes. In the movie, John C. Reilly plays a lonely soul who meets the woman of his dreams (Marisa Tomei), but their love is threatened by her oddly close relationship to her son, played by Hill in the title role. Though sold as a comedy, the film features many dark and uncomfortable moments, including Cyrus throwing tantrums and mentally torturing Reilly’s character. It was a leap to cast Hill, but Mark Duplass says he and his brother were sold within two minutes of meeting the actor. “Jonah was so eager and excited to do something different that we never had to push,” he says. “He was willing to try anything, to go anywhere. In the wrong hands, the role of Cyrus could have been a kitschy, over-the-top cornfest. Jonah just happens to have a big brain and an even bigger heart, and it was clear to everyone from day one that he was headed for big things.”

Keener recommended Hill to Bennett Miller, who was looking to cast the role of Peter Brand, an economics whiz, in “Moneyball.” With “Cyrus” not yet in release, Hill told the Duplasses that his family could attend only an early screening, and he slipped Miller in to see the movie. Hill believes that screening sealed the “Moneyball” role. “ ‘Cyrus’ was a tipping point,” he says of the film, which made less than $10 million at the worldwide box office. “It led me to this path I’m on now.”

Miller chuckles at the tale. “It’s a beautiful story, and he likes to tell it, so I’m really loath to burst that bubble,” he says. “But if you want to know the truth, the decision had been made before I screened that movie.”

Miller says he didn’t even audition Hill; he knew from talking to him that he could pull off the role of Peter. “Part of the reason he was so good is he understood what it meant to be undervalued or overlooked,” Miller notes. “As much success as he had in his early films, in which he is phenomenal, I really do believe that what he has to offer as an actor defies our expectations.”

The thesp isn’t shy about pursuing the roles he wants. He jokes of “stalking” DiCaprio when they were both in Mexico doing publicity for their respective films, “21 Jump Street” and “J. Edgar,” making a case for himself to play Donnie Azoff in “The Wolf of Wall Street.” He was happy to audition for Scorsese, and even took a huge cut in pay, making just $60,000 for six months of shooting.

No matter how serious a film, Hill still relies on the same methods he developed at the behest of Dustin Hoffman to prepare for the role. Before every movie, he calls a customer service line as the character he’s about to play. For Donnie, he made calls to Best Buy to see if his annoying, gravelly voice sounded realistic. “It’s a way to improvise and rehearse in real life, because I can’t do it in person. If someone recognized me, I’d look like an insane person. If they believe it, I have confidence in myself that it’s real.”

Hill recently wrapped another dramatic turn in Fox’s “True Story,” in which he co-stars with James Franco in the story of a murderer on the FBI’s Most Wanted list who assumed the identity of real-life journalist Michael Finkel. Hill plays Finkel, with Franco as the killer. It’s a very different dynamic than the pair shared in the bawdy comedy “This Is the End.”

“Jonah was very serious on ‘True Story,’ ” says Franco of Hill’s first dramatic lead. “In fact he was a little depressed because it was such a dark film.” Yet Franco notes that the two found room for jokes off-camera. “He’s like a brother to me,” Franco said.

Hill is also getting back into television, producing a scripted series with DiCaprio and rapper Q-Tip about hip-hop artists the Native Tongues for FX. And while he can’t reveal details at this time, he’s producing a show for HBO with “Wolf” writer Terence Winter and his wife Rachel, a producer on “Dallas Buyers Club.” Hill and DiCaprio are also set to produce a film based on the life of Richard Jewell, the security guard at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics who was first considered a hero for discovering a bomb on site, but whose life was torn apart days later when he became the FBI’s prime suspect. The two actors were doing press on “Wolf” in Japan when their manager, Rick Yorn, sent them Marie Brenner’s 1997 Vanity Fair article about the Atlanta events. Both thesps instantly signed on to produce, and for Hill to play Jewell, with DiCaprio as his colorful lawyer.

Billy Ray, recently nominated for an Oscar for scripting “Captain Phillips,” is working on the screenplay; a director has not been announced. “It’s a heartbreaking, incredible story,” Hill says. “It’s what I’m most passionate about right now.”

Now all he has to do is concentrate on keeping that passion constructive and keeping his temper in check.

I agree, not a big deal at all. We all can say some bad words and it doesn’t mean we are homophobic or something else, unless it’s all the time, of course. It’s a bad-mouth habit and it has nothing with what is in our hearts. So chill, journalists, get a better theme to write about, losers.

Paparazzi can be a nuisance and he told the guy to get out of his face and he didn’t. I think people are blowing the situation out of proportion. Who wouldn’t be pissed if you repeatedly asked someone to stop and they didn’t and then started slinging insults. Nobody got on to the papparazzi like they should have.

I am old and somewhat wise. Many times I have seen a rising star pull a move that should they have had the opportunity to “re-do”, they most certainly would. This is just such a case. However, how Mr. Hill handled the situation immediately and with sincere atonement was not only one of the classiest moves I have ever watched in “PR repair”, it was one that I think actually HELPED his career. The genuine apology was heart felt- all those watching knew that and it was exemplary in “keeping it real” within his true character and not just a charade of his “handlers”.

Look – what he said was not cool, but everyone has had a moment where they are loose their cool. It just sucks that now the story reads “Hill lashes out with a homophobic slur…” instead of “A**hole camera man gets a blessed out for following Hill too closely.” I will go on record and say I have said worse things to people who follow me to closely in traffic. If I made a headline any time I lost my cool in rush hour – the world would know my name!
For those who say “It’s the price they pay for fame.” I say bull. If he was a hot drunk mess out side a party, chasing down men coming out of a gay night club and calling them offensive names then more power to the media. But lets be honest, we have people picketing funerals of homosexual soldiers who died for there county and we are more worried about what Jonah is saying to someone who was at BEST being annoying? Ugh! Paparazzi is just another word for a failed journalist. The best thing to do at this point is move on. He has done more than enough damage control and NOTHING I have ever read about him leads me to believe that he is not an open minded individual. (I do NOT know him personally he could be some closeted homophobic Nazi, misogynist, who uses pit-bulls as drug mules but that’s just not the vibe I get. If he would ever want to lunch just to set the record straight – I would be more than willing.)

Give me the damn date of the article at the top like any other article on the internet. I’ve never been to this website before, and I already see something wrong with it. And Jonah Hill’s career has been serious for a lot longer than this. Have you seen him in Funny People, Get Him to the Greek, or heard him in How to Train Your Dragon? Just because he’s a comedian doesn’t mean his career can’t be serious. He’s evolved into a mature comedian, who’s now focusing less on comedy. And if you’re talking about name recognition, I’ve known who Jonah Hill was since 2007. I made an account for this stupid website just so I could voice this particular displeasure.

Jonah Hill is not homophobic. I am a gay male in the entertainment business and have discussed this with my close circle of gay friends. We all agree this word really should not be used. People do not really understand how dangerous this word can be and especially when a celebrity uses it. Let’s say you are a fan of Hill’s and you are “Joe Crazy” 17 year-old living in certain parts (coughing) Southern of this country. It’s wrong but they do look up to actors sometimes. So Joe Crazy uses this word and it goes on to cause harm against some poor gay kid in their school. Now, do I put blame on Jonah? NO. Here is why. We are the same age. Growing up this word was tossed around somewhat like the F-word. I am not saying it’s right but I think that every once and awhile should this word come out of someone, someone like Hill who has done work in the gay community, has gay friends and worked with gay people — make sure they understand (which they already do but remind them) public figure – really really don’t ever utter that word. And I believe in his personal life he does not. He believe he also supports gay people and has since becoming more educated. Was the word in his vernacular growing up? Yah probably. Was it in mine? I didn’t use it but it’s back there. People say stupid things all the time. And to the media I say: one utterance of a word does not make one a homophobe take the context in which it was used. The man was not gay he was pestering and pestering Hill (we have got to do something about the paparazzi problem in LA but that’s another story. Hill used the word. He immediately went public and apologized. If it happens again he’s a homophobe possibly. It’s a bit more complicated and someone deserves the respect of really looking into their background first to see if they are homophobic or at the very least questionable. In Hill’s case — I don’t think so. So he gets a pass. To everyone else I say: don’t use this very powerful hate word. And to the media – let’s not pounce one someone and try and take them down over one thing shall we? Let’s have a bit more class and not write the EASY articles and PERHAPS dig into his background on working with the gay community and perhaps having gay family and friends as well — who he has fully supported and embraced. The TMZ story is too easy and is not an accurate reflection of who someone is. We all say something bad no and again — we just don’t have a small camera and a bunch of weirdos/stalkers with cameras trying to provoke us after having a nice dinner in town.

No it is sad that everyone is so sensitive to the slightest comment these days. Everyone has to be so politically correct in the US. It is terrible. I don’t want make new friends because what if they can’t handle my joking sense of humor like most of my friends can and not be so serious. Why do you care if Jonah Hill likes or dislikes homosexuals. You shouldnt and if you are offended because a star who you will never become friends with said one bad word then you will most likely be alone the rest of your life. I am sorry there are 315 million people in this country and occassionally people are going to say bad things. that will always happen. What can’t happen is people blowing up about it every time. There is no possible way you can sit there, write that message and act like you have never offended a particular group or made some colorful slur in the presence of close friends. Impossible. Your a hypocrit. I don’t care when people say things like this. What i do care is how people get so upset about it acting like they are perfect. And I know the response you will give, “I know I am not perfect” trust me i don’t know you and I know you’re not perfect, so quit acting like it.

This reminds me of the fact that if a police officer follows you long enough eventually you will make a mistake. No one wants to be harassed and Jonah Hill just had enough as he was being tailed all day. Jonah did not assault him or physically harm him which would be unforgivable. He just got upset very briefly. This photographer could have been trailing him for weeks or days. This is stalking and harassment. A normal citizen would call the police but celebrities have to put up with it. He has already apologized for this and is clearly sorry.

When we lose our cool we don’t have millions of judgmental people saying “Oh well I would have done this!”. I highly doubt it. I believe most people would handle the situation far worse. He puts up with harassment all day so he can entertain you and make you laugh. He seems like a sensitive and nice kid. If we’re not careful he might run away with his 30 million dollars and we’ll never chuckle at his antics again. I am not saying what he said is okay, but if you kick a nice dog too many times don’t act surprised when he snarls and shows some teeth. Let’s be good fans and support him by forgiving him and giving some empathy.

And if you want to still play the politically correct game after the dear boy has apologized to all people straight and gay. Could I not say that this photographer is an anti-semite because he targeted a Jewish actor? Should the mudslinging continue this may be the only way to fight political correctness with more political correctness.

You guys missed a very big part of his career, growth connector and protector. This piece feels fluffy and not really in depth. The people in his life encourage his bad behavior. Look at the rolling stone article, the bribing of journalists and now his most recent debacle. His compass is off and no one cares because of his success and therefore his importance to their pocket book. Dig deeper.

You’re right on the money there. This puff piece is so obvious a whitewashing response (bought by his pr folks, VERY possibly) to counter the boy’s stupidity. Entertainment media spins these folks like they are gods. He’s a VERY VERY lucky guy, with some chops. Plenty more out there to take the baton from him.

Don’t spend your hard earned money lining the pockets of this homophobe. The writer of this article was really in “damage control” mode. Trying to talk this creep up, and down play what he said. I hope that this really has a negative impact on ticket sales to his new silly comedy.

Let’s face it. Some of the worst epithets angry guys can think up to hurl at one another are those relating to sexual orientation. That, or comments on one’s parentage. Or one’s mother’s promiscuous tendencies.

Add in the frequently immature, impulsive natures of entertainment artists, plus a dash or two of alcohol/drugs in many cases, and you have a recipe for repeated slurs of one kind or another, spoken by showbiz men who are mad. Mel Gibson, anyone?

I’m a woman, but I’ve witnessed and heard about this kind of behavior among guys over and over again throughout my 65 years on the planet. Obviously it’s a foul-tempered ‘thing’ with a lot of them. But it has NEVER automatically followed that they hate/fear gays, Jews, your parents, or your mom.

I’m an openly gay American man. He got pushed, got pissed, and lashed out. So what? Bad choice of words, for sure, but does anyone really think he’s a homophobe? Come on. Get over it. But I guess, in this new world of hyper-sensitive, political correctness where RUPAUL CHARLES is the new face of extreme homophobia!!! (get a grip queens!!) Jonah Hill’s slip up can be a “major issue”. Come on, guys and gals, lets use some common sense. Fight the true enemy.

Jonah Hill has proven, through his work, that he’s even less “homophobic” than most in Hollywood. The words he used are words that even gay folks use when they are angry! Frankly I’m pissed that so many people came down so hard on Alec Baldwin, who I also believe is also one of the least homophobic people in Hollywood. Both of these actors have worked side-by-side with fellow gay actors for years. When you get mad, why can’t you call someone who is a little queen a “little queen”, without being deemed anti-gay?

Al Wilson, you are right. I live in Hollywood and couldn’t deal with any ass hole following me for a minute much less all day like Jonah put up with. And I don’t care what Jonah said. It’s getting so nobody can say anything anymore. Who gives a shit! I am sick and tired of having to edit my speech.

Oh…get off it….too,too much is made of any public figure who while angry looses it and makes a remark like Jonah did. Does this excuse the crumb bum papo who taunted him, to get him mad ….so he could get a photo of him to sell to what crappy tabloid who will take it for $2K?. C’mon…give it a rest…all this PC crap is tiring amd exploitative

WOW I have never seen Variety provide so much “cover” for an actors homophobic behavior. Well, at least we know Jonah has Variety and at least this particular reporter in his pocket. Now can we just have the story about why he felt justified to hurl homophobic remarks at anybody and the subsequent apology?

Has nothing to do with the photogs…its about the way he conducted himself. He could have said something witty…I mean, he is an actor. That was hate speech and anyone who condones it is just as guilty. Yeah, paparaazzi are vultures, but its about conducting yourself like a man…not some jock adolescent. You are a two time Oscar nominee…ACT LIKE IT!!!

Haha! Saying that all Oscar nominees should have class is so asinine especially with all the filth that churns out of Hollywood that is labeled as Oscar worthy! I think you are backwards, my friend. But don’t worry this world is falling away just like you.

I didn’t like Jonah until I saw him this year in a Q and A with Leonardo and was impressed how real, sincere, young Jonah is, and Leo obviously likes Jonah, so all that’s good enough for me: I am now a Jonah Hill fan, and the paparazzo should have stopped being nuisance to Jonah.